340 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



reiterations of the weaker will give confirmation to 

 the arguments of the more powerful advocate ; and 

 if several of these, taking up different departments 

 of science, — each in their own walk, — arrive by 

 different inferences at the same conclusions, we 

 may safely believe that there is much of truth in 

 the result. It may be said, indeed, by those who 

 yet concur in the sentiments here expressed, that 

 there is little need of any further discussion on the 

 state of science in Britain, seeing it has already 

 been animadverted upon, " more in sorrow than in 

 anger," by such men as Sir H. Davy, Sir J. Her- 

 schel, Professor Babbage*, and Sir James South -f ; 

 and further, by a writer no less accomplished than 

 eloquent, in a Journal J devoted to the political 

 interests of the court or conservative party, and 

 which would not have been the organ for casting 

 imputations upon the government, except under 

 strong and peculiar circumstances. With such a 

 mass of evidence before those who have the power 

 of remedying the evils complained of, it may be 

 said, that to reiterate these complaints is alike 

 tedious and unprofitable, seeing that they are al- 

 ready well known. But the question more pro- 

 perly is this : — Have they been redressed ? have 

 they made such an impression as they ought to 

 make? have any effectual measures been taken 



* Reflections on the Decline of Science in England. London, 

 1830. 



t Charges against the President and Councils of the Royal 

 Society. London, 1830. 



f On the Decline of Science in England. Quarterly Review, 

 Oct. 1830. 



